Train Like Lornah

Training Principles

Published

May 2, 2006

In 2005, Lornah Kiplagat won every road 10K she entered: seven consecutive world-class victories. This came during a year where she says she didn’t push "hard, hard, hard, hard," as she had in the past but "took it in a relaxed manner." More than anything, she says of the 2005 season that running was "a lot of fun."

Part of the reason for the fun was that it was the first time in three to four years that she was running without pain, having healed injuries that plagued her during her track training and racing leading up to the Olympic 10,000m. The reason she was able to overcome these injuries, have fun and excel on the roads stem from some key principles that all of us can apply.

Training Principles:

1) Make Choices

A big difference in Lornah’s schedule between 2004 and 2005 was giving up on track races and focusing exclusively on the roads. "Last year I was so tired from the whole season," Lornah says. Trying to run fast on the track, she was not doing as many long runs, and was injured early in the season.

Realizing that her strength was on the roads and in cross country, she raced only once on the track and enjoyed the luxury of training to her strengths. "It is not possible to do everything," says Lornah’s husband, Pieter Langerhorst, "You have to make choices."

"My advice is that you need to have fun in anything you do—including running," Lornah told RT columnist Gordon Bakoulis last autumn. "If you feel great on the track, you run track. If you feel great on the long distance, you run half marathons or marathons. You just need to have fun in what you do."

2) Don’t Be a Slave

During the summer of 2005, when Lornah was winning every race she entered, she says she "didn’t even have a schedule" but "went by feeling." Her husband, Pieter, revealed later that she did have a rough schedule (see box previous page), but that they "use it as a guideline and not a ‘must.’" He also points out that this is "more to keep in shape, of course, most work is done in the winter." In the winter they do more mileage to build a base.

This relaxed non-schedule is new for Lornah. She had overtrained for the past five years, she knows now. "She always runs more than I tell her," Pieter jokes. "That’s not true!" Lornah says, then admits that if the schedule called for 10 X 200m repeats, she’d do 12. "Two thousand meters was for the coach, 400 was for me," she says. If the schedule said 1:30, she’d do 1:50. Pieter says he even feared a bit when he was out for a long run that Lornah would have snuck out on her rest day. "I like running," Lornah says. "She’s a little bit addicted," Pieter adds.

Now, Lornah says, "I really give it all—I’m more motivated now than ever. But I’m trying to be a little bit careful. This is a human body, not a machine. Before, I didn’t believe I could be injured." She’s also learning to trust, to believe that her support team of coach, physiotherapist and husband are professionals. The result: "It is easy for me now," she says.

3) Throw Out the Watch

Lornah says that in 2005 she was "not under pressure to perform fast times." When you are chasing records, she says, it "takes so much out of the body."

"If you want times, every training session you have pressure to go fast," she explains. "It’s no fun. If you are focused on times, you’re always looking at the watch."

Instead, she says, "This year, I was just out to win. It feels easier to win. My thing now is just win, win, win."

Of course, winning is out of the question for most of us, but the principle holds: We can’t always be the best we’ve ever been every time out. "Its the drive of every athlete to always want more," Lornah says. But like her, we’d do better to have our goal each race to do our best. "If I win—OK. If not, there is next time," Lornah says.

4) Train the Whole Athlete

Looking closely at Lornah’s weekly schedule, you’ll note that she does more than just running. At least two times per week she spins on a bicycle trainer. She runs in the water once or twice a week (even when not injured), and does strength work once or twice a week.

This variety of training extends to training young runners at her High Altitude Training Center in Iten, Kenya. Michelle Pense, a Texas runner who spent a month in Iten during the summer of 2005, reports that they do "lots of drills—bounding, skipping" after every morning run. Later in the day, they do core training in a group. This is a fun, relaxed session where one person calls out an exercise and they all do it for a while, then another thinks of one: leg raises, sit-ups, upside-down bicycle, super man, the bridge, and others. In addition, Pense reports that twice a week the group does a circuit of strength training instead of their afternoon run. The circuit uses mostly body weight, in exercises like lunges, push-ups, triceps dips, step-ups, and some light hand-weight repeats.

While most of us do not have the relaxed schedule of a training camp, nor the group to do exercises with, we would do well to supplement our running—and even replace some running time—with drills, core exercises, strength training, and complementary workouts like cycling and water running.

5) Keep it Simple

More than any training aspects, Pense’s impression of her time at Lornah’s camp was that life there was "wonderfully simple."

While they are running, they are focussed. "They don’t talk much," Pense reports, "and if you need to stop to tie your shoe, you better catch up." But when not running, they aren’t obsessed about it. They don’t even keep training logs.

Talking with Lornah, you soon feel that we worry far too much about schedules, totals, specific workouts. After discussing her training, details of which remain fuzzy even after several attempts to pin them down, she sums up: "Just keep fit. When you have a race, do more speed—then: done."